The Definitive Argument For John Cena Being WWE's Greatest Megastar of All Time
John Cena will end his WWE career on Dec. 13 as part of Saturday Night's Main Event, where he will face Gunther in one last marquee matchup.
It will be the conclusion of a career that saw Cena rise from afterthought to the industry's biggest star, a real-life superhero for fans to idolize.
Along the way, he established himself as the greatest megastar in WWE history; a performer with crossover appeal who achieved success in and out of the ring, while carrying himself with the professionalism and respect demanded of someone in his position.
He was never the box-office draw of a Hulk Hogan, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin or The Rock, but there are several other areas of his stardom that have helped Cena earn the title of The Greatest of All Time.
These are just a few.
Iconic Matches
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When it comes to achieving megastar status in professional wrestling, there must be iconic matches that fans can point to as the defining contests of that performer's era.
Cena has plenty.
From his bouts with Edge, which helped both men rise to even greater stardom than they had already achieved, to his instant classics against CM Punk, there are several matches that fans and analysts can highlight as iconic bouts that tell the story of The Unseen 17.
Throw in his trilogy with AJ Styles from 2016-17 and his SummerSlam 2025 main event against Cody Rhodes and he has at least one match from every decade in which he has competed that can be considered one that shaped the narrative of the time.
The Longevity of His Run
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Hulk Hogan was on top in WWE for nine years before leaving to join WCW. Steve Austin and The Rock both sat atop the company for four years before one retired and the other answered Hollywood's call.
Cena has been on top in WWE for two decades, rising to the main event in 2005 when he captured the top prize in the company from JBL at WrestleMania 21 in Los Angeles to this year's retirement tour, where he still headlines shows and sells a ton of merchandise.
There have been interruptions due to an increasingly busy filming schedule, but he has always come back when the opportunity has presented itself, whether it was to add further credibility to Roman Reigns' heel run or to partner LA Knight and give him that last bit of rub needed to catapult him into the main event scene.
His ability to stay over and relevant for as long as he has, without ever really changing who he is or what his character stands for, is even more impressive.
He has remained true to those who followed his ascent and stuck by him even during the tough times, when fans booed him in arenas in defiance of his good-guy shtick, and has rewarded them by remaining the same hero they threw their support behind at the start.
Cena has competed in a WWE ring across three different decades, headlined WrestleManias and every other major PLE during that time, battling with and against every major Superstar to come through the company in that time.
When he recognized he could no longer physically give the fans the performance they had come to expect, he announced his retirement tour and gave them one last year of hard work and dedication to a company and fanbase to which he had dedicated his life.
Evolution as an In-Ring Performer
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Haunted by the chants of "you can't wrestle," Cena never allowed himself to rest on his laurels and defy the audience by doing the same shtick every night just to prove he was right.
He listened and adjusted. Speaking to Tom Rinaldi in an interview for WWE's YouTube channel, Cena credited Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, AJ Styles and CM Punk for helping him become a better worker between the ropes.
His willingness to evolve between the ropes when it became clear fans demanded something different than the five moves of doom and posing with the title is something others in his position may not have been quick to concern themselves with.
Cena took the steps necessary to be a better performer for the sake of an audience who had lost faith in him from that perspective and set out to improve himself at a time in his career when he did not have to.
Parents would have continued to buy his shirts for their children and bought tickets to see him work, but he owed it to the entire audience to be the best he could be and set out to accomplish that; something he does not get enough credit for.
Dedication to the Future of the Industry
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Wrestling has a long history of top guys who spent too much time protecting their spot, long after it should have ceased being their spot.
While Cena may not have been in a rush to put Nexus over at SummerSlam in 2010, as David Otunga explained to Chris Van Vliet, he spent a significant chunk of his career preparing the future of the business by working with a bevy of young stars.
There is no denying what working with Cena did to help CM Punk make that final jump to main event status and establish himself as a top-tier talent in WWE.
At a time when Daniel Bryan was facing resistance from Vince McMahon and other power players behind the scenes, Cena campaigned for him and put him over clean in the middle of the ring at SummerSlam in 2013.
Cena worked with Bray Wyatt to help further legitimize him, did the same for Rusev, and was the first feud of Kevin Owens' main roster career.
He elevated Sami Zayn on his first night with the main roster, helped the fans realize AJ Styles' worth in the company, and even returned in 2023 to put Austin Theory over at WrestleMania 39.
He made Solo Sikoa look like a million bucks at Crown Jewel that same year, signed off on LA Knight's big push around that time by partnering with him against The Bloodline at Fastlane, and worked three different matches with Dominik Mysterio to help elevate him to the next level.
For a guy with the "SuperCena" moniker for his uncanny ability to power out of any situation and win, he has done his part to prepare this and the next generation of stars so he can ensure the future of WWE.
And if that wasn't enough, he showed up unadvertised to Bayley's Lodestone Wrestling camp and worked with an entire group of female wrestlers who will form the foundation of the women's sport for the foreseeable future.
Once a young star who walked onto global TV and challenged Kurt Angle in an opportunity he received because The Undertaker was sick, Cena has committed the time and effort to give those same opportunities to the next generation.
Living Up to Expectations as Top WWE Star
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Being the top star for an entire generation in a company as large and globally recognized as WWE brings responsibilities beyond great matches, in-ring improvements and building a new generation of stars to carry things forward.
One has to recognize they are a superhero of sorts to fans around the world while also representing the company to the best of their ability by being an ambassador for the business as a whole.
Those were lofty expectations to put on the shoulders of a 28-year-old in 2005, but Cena rose to the occasion and became everything the company could have wanted, and then some.
Not only did he promote movies and projects for WWE, but he also put in the work to do so. There were rarely days off; he showed up at every press conference, project reveal and special event.
He also never forgot where he came from.
Even when Hollywood inevitably came calling and he stepped away from the squared circle to tackle acting, he continued to support the industry. He spoke positively about it, never shied away from questions about wrestling, and even defended it when advised to drop it if he wanted to succeed in showbusiness.
Most importantly, it is his work with the Make-A-Wish Foundation that defines him as a hero beyond the squared circle.
The celebrity with the most wishes granted in the history of the charity, Cena has spent his adult life meeting and inspiring those with life-threatening conditions, giving them courage to keep fighting.
A selfless Superstar who gave back to an industry that gave him a life he could not have imagined when he first appeared in Ohio Valley Wrestling, Cena was a megastar in and out of the ring.
